Workspot & VNC

Workspot uses VNC to allow our users to view their Linux desktop, running on our servers, from anywhere they want. They can use a VNC Java applet to view their desktop using their favorite browser, or they can run a standalone native VNC viewer client.

Currently for the Xvnc server Workspot uses the version that comes with RedHat Linux, which includes both the tight and zlib encodings. Workspot's Linux desktop currently runs the RedHat Linux distribution.

For the VNC viewer client, Workspot currently tests and supports the following platforms:

• Linux (our modified version of the Tight VNC 1.2.6 Linux VNC Viewer)
• Windows (the Tight VNC 1.2.6 Windows VNC viewer)
• Macintosh OS X (our modified version of the Tight VNC 1.2.6 Java applet)
• Macintosh OS 9 (our modified version of the old AT&T 3.3.3 vncviewer --- includes tight and zlib encodings)
• Java applet in browser (our modified version of the Tight VNC 1.2.6 Java applet)

Note: both the Linux & Macintosh VNC viewer clients have been modified so that they can be started up as browser helper apps. (The Windows client already contains code to do so.) That lets our users click a link in the browser to automatically start up a VNC session using the native client: the browser downloads a VNC config file and then starts up the VNC viewer client which reads the config file to get the connection information (host, port, password, etc.).

The Java applet has been modified to work around a bug with the color model in Apple's old version of Java on the Macintosh that caused the VNC applet to display the remote screen as mostly black.

Fix the VNC server to better handle cutting and pasting with the VNC viewer client.

Adding some form of secure encryption (SSL) to the VNC connection.

Support for connecting to our VNC server from behind a firewall.

Download the Workspot VNC Modifications

Workspot modified client apps --- Binaries

1) Linux VNC viewer application:
        http://www.workspot.net/download/vncviewer.bin

2) Mac OS X VNC viewer application:
        http://www.workspot.net/download/vncviewer.tar.gz

3) Macintosh OS 9 VNC viewer application:
        http://www.workspot.net/download/MacVncViewer3.3.4.sea.hqx

Workspot modified client apps --- Source code

1) Linux native client patch for tightvnc-1.2.6_unixsrc:
        http://www.workspot.net/download/vnc-config.patch

2) Mac OS X native client patch for tightvnc-1.2.6_javasrc:
        http://www.workspot.net/download/vnc-java.patch

3) Source code for Macintosh OS 9 VNC viewer application:
        http://www.workspot.net/download/MacVncViewerSrcs3.3.4.sea.hqx

4) Mac OS 9 Java applet patch for tightvnc-1.2.6_javasrc:
        http://www.workspot.org/vnc/download/vnc-mac-applet.patch

5) vnc_unixsrc-config.patch:

enables linux client to read Windows VNC config file

6) vnc_unixsrc-clipboard.patch:

clipboard fixes

7) vnc_unixsrc-crypto.patch:

AES for Linux server and client

8) vnc_winsrc-crypto.patch:

AES for Windows client

9) MacVncViewerOSX.patch:

Patch for MAC OS X viewer

10) MacVncViewerOSX-crypto.patch:

AES patch for MAC OS X viewer

11) MacVncViewerSrcs3.3.4.sea.hqx:

Patch for OS 9.

12) vnc_javasrc-applet-crypto-1.2.8.patch:

AES patch for java applet.

Future Plans

Here are some of the features we are considering adding to VNC:

• Minor optimizations to the Java vncviewer
• Support for the recently added RealVNC zrle encoding.
• Support for VNC over HTTP

There are lots of interesting things being done with VNC by various groups. As other people add new features to VNC, we want to make them available to users of Workspot.

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments about Workspot and VNC.